*

Monday, August 25, 2014

Looks Like Summer

Today was another first day of school for Stephen {and apparently like 20 of my friends on Facebook or their kids} and another Monday off-track for me. I guess that means summer is really over and I'd better start blogging about it.

Here's an amazing dinner I made one night: salmon with carmelized onions and this beautiful summery salad with homemade dressing.  
We had a little fireworks party with our neighbors for Pioneer Day. It was so fun!!
And when I say we had a little fireworks party....I mean we set off all these fireworks. 
Train did a free concert in SLC one night, so you know we were there!! With like 20 of our closest friends. 

My favorite part was when this little girl got up on stage and sang "Bruises" with Train. It was so cute! Two years ago, my favorite part would have been when he invited any young ladies who wanted to dance to come up on stage with him. Because you know if I was a single lady, I would have been all over that! But I am old and married and boring now, so I stayed on my blanket with my hotter-than-Train husband.

After dropping Joseph off at the MTC, Natalie and I went to this little antique store. They had a quirky sense of humor there :)
UVU is slowly becoming our favorite hangout spot. We went there one day and played pool and air hockey. For the record, it was my first time ever sinking a ball in a pocket without cheating, and that is a big accomplishment!

I don't know if you have ever been to Sole Envy, but they were having an AMAZING sale one day in August. Everything in the store was 4 pairs of shoes for $50! Natalie and I almost peed our pants, and I finally got brown riding boots I have been wanting for a year. Happy Anniversary to me?
Since Stephen is a working man now, Natalie was my date for every social function I attended during the week. Like, Joe and Julia's wedding! 

I don't know why I am so bad at getting pictures with people at their weddings. But this is the best picture I have of the happy couple leaving their reception under a (geniusly restricted by bushes) sparkler tunnel.  
I had a baby! JK, Stephen's cousin Katie did. It is my favorite when people I know have babies, because then I get to hold them and cuddle them and admire their cute little feet, but I still get to sleep at night. Also Katie and Phil make the actual cutest children on this earth, so I'm so happy they have another one!
Stephen had to work on our anniversary, but he got the night off, so we just made breakfast together and then I dropped him off at work. He was making eggs when I got a hilarious idea to put a pillow in my sweatpants and one in my shirt, and go out and say "I'm sorry that I've changed so much since you married me!" Then he recognized the hilarity and put a pillow in his butt and I died. And we took some embarrassing pictures.


We are not always an old frumpy married couple! Natalie did my hairs and makeup for a fun anniversary date night. We went to La Jolla Groves, where he took me after we got engaged. 

They gave him a Creme Brûlée for his birthday!  
The lighting in there is so bad, I don't know why. But we had to take a picture like the one we took last year!
We were so young :)
When we got home, I opened the door and found rose petals going all the way back to our room and this: 
#bachelorettestatus. Of course I knew Stephen hadn't done it, so when I saw it, I said all thrilled: "Natalie, thankkk you!" She was lurking around a corner somewhere and said "What? I didn't do anything. The Love Fairy came!" and then Stephen got a little flustered and was all "Okay, it was my idea, I got the roses for it...." and I had to tell him thanks and that he is the best husband ever :)
That is the biggest knife we have in Stephen's hand. I don't know why we couldn't just take down the decorations like normal people? 
Joseph was mostly nonchalant, but a little excited to be going on a mission. 
If you haven't looked at it yet, be sure to check out his mission blog

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Ode to the BroJoe

This post is not so much an ode as it is a collection of pictures, with a link that will redirect you to Elder Connor's missionary blog. Enjoy!

We took him to Cafe Rio and took this picture that is great of him and round-faced of me. 
Then I took the Front Runner to a meeting and found like a billion missionaries waiting at the station for who know's what
On Wednesday morning, I took Joseph and Natalie to school with me,  and then we took this unpicturesque picture in the Zupa's parking lot, where we had lunch. 
Then we went to the MTC, making a brief pit stop at the Provo temple, and tried to get just one freaking picture of the new Elder jumping in the air. Just ONE! 




Then we tried to take a good shot of him being all excited to leave and me being all weepy. But mostly they just turned out awkward and hilarious and I feel obligated to put them up on this blog because I'm just that kind of a generous soul.



 So after looking over those failed pictures, we swapped out the models and got some purposefully awkward pictures of Elder Connor and Natalie's sunny hairs.


I was obviously doing pretty well with the whole emotional-ness. As in, I had not yet shed a tear, and I wasn't even thinking about how freaking long two years is, and two Christmases, and maybe two weddings?? and I was ready to take some more pictures in front of the MTC sign!

This is, not the MTC sign.  
See all those missionaries behind us? This is the MTC, and it is right here where you drop off your family member or friend in front of about 8 million missionaries, and take 60 seconds to say your goodbyes. 
I'm pretty sure we didn't take up the whole 60 seconds, mostly because that's when I started tearing up, and that is always my cue to disengage and escape. 
Here's how I recovered: sneaking into a pool with Natalie where we are not residents and did not register to lay out in the sun and nap. 
Before leaving, Joseph put me in charge of his missionary blog! So, snaps about that. Here's the link I promised: http://elderjosephconnor.blogspot.com Follow along or check in every once in a while! 

Saturday, August 9, 2014

Shimps in Love

On July 16th, sometime before 1990, this happened:


They went on to become this:


.....an amazing (not to mention adorable!) example to me of the kind of marriage and love I want.

Growing up, I found it hard to imagine a time when my parents didn't know each other. They worked together so well and navigated each other's quirks in a way that was so natural, it almost made me believe in soul mates.

Now, it has been one year since this day:


The day I said yes, I do want to marry this guy:

And he said that yes, he wanted to marry me, too. 


....and for the second time in my life, I find myself almost believing in soul mates (as cheesy as that sounds).

I love how my life has continued on as I had planned, but better with him. I've never felt like I had to change my goals, or who I was, to be with him. My dreams have only gotten bigger.


I love how he's made me more adventurous. One time there was this girl who kept getting engaged to different guys, and every time she got in a new relationship, she changed her mind on how she liked her eggs. True story. I don't feel like I've become someone I'm not for Stephen, but I do feel like I've developed new interests, and I love how he's introduced me to a more active lifestyle.


I love that he cleans, like puts stuff away and sweeps and mops. It is so cool.


I love hearing him say "I love you." When we first got married, he said something along the lines of, "I don't think we need to say I love you so much. I mean, I know you love me. You know I love you. Can't we just say it like....every few days?" Full disclosure, I think I might have cried. #birthcontrol. But somewhere along the way (maybe right then? because I cried?), he changed his mind, and now we say it like 5 times a day. Which could get old, if you were just saying it to keep your wife from crying, but I love how he chooses when to say it.


I love staying up late and whispering and laughing with him. Why is he so funny late at night when I'm trying to sleep?


I love that I really think he's the cutest boy I've ever seen. Physical attraction is important. If someone tells you it's not, tell them thanks for taking one for the team and then you go marry someone you are attracted to. Every guy, no matter how wonderful their personality is, is going to say something stupid at some point. And when that day comes, I hope you can look at them and think "At least he's hot" or "Just ignore that and look at his face" or "Those biceps, though...."


I love how he corrects me. He does it so sweetly and simply that it makes me feel bad for all the times I've snapped at him about something trivial.


I love how he is with kids. When he comes to visit my class, it typically starts out with them being too nervous to approach him and say hi and ends with the entire 2nd grade chasing him in a swarm at Recess. I love talking with him about how we'll be when we're parents.


I love his laugh.


Sometimes I think our fights are downright hilarious. There was this one:

Me: *opening a wedding announcement* Awwww, I'm so happy for her!
Me: Stephen. Do you get excited for your friends when they get engaged?
Him: What? No, not really.
Me: You doooon't?? Why not?
Him: I dunno, I just don't.
Me: *sniffle* But....don't you like being married?
Him: Yeah, but that doesn't mean I'm like way excited and thrilled about other people getting married.
Me: *crying* Why not?? Don't you think marriage is fun!
Him: Babe! I'm not saying that! Of course it's fun....come here. Why are you crying? I do think it's fun. I'm just saying, like, I was excited when we got engaged, but I don't even know those people....
#birthcontrol

And this one:

Him: Do you know where that check is?
Me: No....
*Repeat 5 times as he looks around for it and I stand there trying really hard to remember where I put it*
Him: Okay, that's it. You can't have anything important anymore! You always do this, you're like, oh, this is important! I've got to put it somewhere special so I'll remember where it is. *He stares at his hand for a second*
Him: How about here? *He slam-dunks it in the back of a cupboard*



I love that he is my husband, but he's also my grocery shopping assistant, my rock-climbing belayer, my Friday night plans, my personal trainer, my travel companion, and my best friend.


I love that he lets me stop and listen to "Let it Go" every time it comes on the radio, and that sometimes he puts up with country. I love how he introduced me to reggae and now we listen to chill music, sans the pot, and Rude is our song because we discovered it in California before it hit Utah and got really big here.


I love learning his quirks. I don't think I've ever known someone so well.


I love watching him do things that he's really good at - speaking Spanish to the Mexican guy at the scooter rental place in Cozumel, explaining some bio-organic-chemi-physics gook to someone else in the class, answering questions I have about the church, rock-climbing like he was born on the side of a mountain.


I love the things he's willing to do for me, like how he paints the nails on my right hand because I'm right-handed, and how he sneakily cleans my ring when I'm taking a shower.


I love how enthusiastically he compliments every meal I ever make. I make hootenanny pancakes err Sunday, and err Sunday, he's all, "MMMM. This is so good! Thanks babe!"


I love how real he is.

I love his brain. He's a much smarter man than I ever thought I would marry, for some reason. But he knows so much about freaking everything.

I love exploring with him! Whether it's a rocky Utah mountainside, a beach in California, or the jungly ruins in Cozumel, he's the person I love holding hands with through the experience.


I love the pride that he takes in our house. When we bought it, I absolutely didn't believe that it would look the way it does now, but he's taken it and made it into a place that I love. He wasn't afraid of the work it would take. It's amazing to me what he's done and I love that he is so opposite of the stereotypical husband who says "I'll fix it tomorrow" and never gets around to it. I've seen him build a ladder out of 2 x 4's in 10 minutes, and I've walked on wood floors that he laid himself. He cares about  everything from the color of paint we use to the width of the wood floor planks.



I had no idea on August 9, 2013 how lucky I truly was. I didn't know then just how perfect Stephen was for me....and it just keeps getting better :)